Rating: 
Summary: I'm sorry for those who don't get it.
Review: This is a movie to be savored by all who think of themselves as artists. Especially if your artistic gift or talent is the essence of who you are and your circumstance seems to prevent exercising it. What if "they" (your potential audience) doesn't want your gift? Can you survive and even prosper or do you collapse into yourself? The ultimate "What if:" What if you feel you must choose between exercising your gift and sacrificing it for something even more important?
In many respects this movie has the same basic theme as "Amadaeus." Soliari chose an entirely different response to being thwarted than Babette and the sisters did. Show the two movies back to back in a group and then discuss talents, gifts, opportunity, mentoring, audience, gratitude, and sacrifice. What music would we have from Mozart if Soliari had been like Babette? It'll be a great evening of talk.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't get it
Review: I'm honestly puzzled by all the rave reviews. On the bright side, there are a fair number of nice touches in the presentation of the feast itself, and I can imagine it making a nice short story. However, as a movie it feels very old-fashioned and not in a good way when it comes to camera work and pacing. Most of the characters are two-dimensional and the music is uninspiring. Perhaps you have to be religious.
Rating: 
Summary: An often lyrical, beautiful movie
Review: This movie details the intersection of the lives of two somewhat reclusive daughters of a Danish religious leader and of a Parisian chef who comes to live with them for political reasons.This movie really stands up to multiple viewings. At first, it seems that the director is more or less unsympathetic to the rigor of the daughters' religion. But after seeing it umpteen million times, I think that there is a real respect shown to their strength and integrity. And, in fact, the very sensualness of Babette's feast simply complements the starkness of their lifestyle.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic For Any Time
Review: Babette's Feast is a one of a kind film. It shows that love reaches out to all of us through many different paths. It even finds us when we try to ignore and push it aside. Love is there even when we can't admit or talk about it. Watch the beauty of this film with an open heart. Don't look for all the current expections that we have in our society. Look at the simpleness and deepness of true friendship and devotion to love.
Rating:
Summary: My Goodness!
Review: This is a movies that I have to watch at least once a year. It makes me weep! Enuf said!
Rating: 
Summary: Tragic travesty
Review: I have nothing to add about this film - except that it is a classic that everyone should see......in its original language. Babette's Feast was one of the highlights of European cinema in the late 1980s. Even my clergyman father was transfixed by the finale where the god-fearing Danish christians had all their senses tempted by the sumptuous feast prepared for them by their decadent French cook. It is a beautiful piece of cinema that should be seen many times. And so it was a few days ago that my wife and I bought it. Neither of us had seen Babette's Feast for a couple of years and we eagerly sat down to watch what we thought would be magic on screen. Sadly, we had mistakenly bought the dubbed version where 19th century Danish peasants seemed to have learnt geriatric American English while their French-speaking cook was either left in French or was completely destroyed by dubbing that was straight out of Monty Python. Sans subtitles we were reduced to, 'Leeve ze feesch under ze taabel, Muusure!' All with rolling r r r r s and heavy breathing. I didn't know whether I was in Scotland or Las Vegas. It was so awful that we turned it off after ten minutes and got rid of it. Now we have the original Danish version with English subtitles and the film has been restored to its original dark austerity. It's one of the most delightful films you will ever see.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Foreign Film.
Review: A very good movie. I love Babette's quote, "An Artist Is Never Poor."
Rating:
Summary: The original in a great new genre
Review: I originally saw 'Babette's Feast' about fifteen years ago with a friend and it blew us both away. Since then, several similar films have come along that I've loved equally, 'Big Night' and 'Eat Drink Man Woman' to name a couple. They are the "FOOD AS LOVE" films, food as the metaphor for giving and family and creating something handmade for those we love. 'Babette's Feast' is the first born of that genre and, in light of all of the new cooking networks and shows that have come along lately, could be a spiritual and soulful touchstone for those viewers. Here's to giving to those we love and loving what we give them!
Rating:
Summary: Rich Foretaste of the Feast To Come
Review: Exquisite foreign film winner which has subtle, yet profound theological undertones running throughout. Two daughters of the church, Luther and Melancthon, only feasting on the law, cut off from love of grace and other pleasures denied servants of the word. Freed, they dine exquisitely on the grace theirs from "extra nos," outside them and their world. Pleasures of a rich and foreign place. Sacrificially given to them, everything laid out before them on the banquet meal, a foretaste of the feast eternal. Reminiscent of Isaiah 25:6ff "On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine--the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever." Hallelujah!
Rating:
Summary: But this really *is* Caille en Sarcophage!
Review: For years I had heard that this was a good movie, but I resisted seeing it. How could a Danish movie about a dinner be all that compelling? I finally broke down and rented it - and watched it, stunned. This is truly a great film. The story is simple. Two pious Danish sisters hire a French maid, Babette, out of a sense of charity. Fourteen years later, Babette wins the lottery. Out of her winnings, she proposes to serve the sisters and their fellow religionists a meal. The film is simple. And like all things that are truly simple, it is a very, very rich feast. The film can be enjoyed on many levels, but it is an overtly Christian film; and the feast is the Lord's Supper. Babette's gift to the sisters and their community is the gift of grace. Unasked for, unearned, and of inestimable value. The sisters were daughters of a stern Protestant who had formed a devout community. When the sisters were young and beautiful, they were each tempted by the chance to have great love and success outside their community. But they remained loyal to their father and their faith. After their father died, they carried on with their faith community. But as the years passed by, bickering and dissension set in. One rainy day, there is a knock on the door and Babette appears in their doorway. She has a letter of introduction from one of the sister's old love, and they decide to take her in. Babette quietly makes herself indispensable to the sisters and the entire village. One day, she wins the lottery, and the sisters assume that she will now leave them. Before leaving them, however, she insists on serving them a proper French meal. The meal itself is the center of the film, and during that meal all the threads of the film are richly woven together. The pious sisters and their community finally learn the true depths of faith - something which is more than just what we believe, but rather also reflects what we do and the love with which we do it. They are twelve to supper, and that number is no accident. Nor is the grace that flows through that meal. Any Christian can appreciate its significance. And anyone who loves the Eucharist can only smile in joy, when one of the guests identifies the main dish as "Caille en Sarcophage" (Quail in a sarcophagus.) He retails a story of the time he ate this extraordinary meal in a fine Parisian restaurant. The other guests smile, but miss his drift. And he exclaims, "But this really *is* Caille en Sarcophage!" They still do not understand, but the meal works its magic nonetheless. This is a film of the sacramental vision - God's rich love reaching out to us body and soul.
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